Fate
by Inkmad567
Summary: For the Flock, the words "Expiration Date" are just something Erasers have; one of the things that make the Flock pretty much unique. But when their own Expiration dates start appearing, everything changes. Not that they've ever obeyed the rules...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi! I just came up with this one morning while still half-asleep (It seems like I get all the best ideas for stories then). This is set after The Final Warning because I haven't read past that yet and…um, here's the disclaimer!**  
_**I do not own Maximum Ride or anything I haven't written, just what I create. **_**There. Happy now?**

"Come on, slowcoaches! Catch me…if you can!" I yelled, wheeling away from the Flock.  
"Oh, yeah, great idea," Iggy shouted back "chase the one with super-speed! Why didn't _I _think of that?" Of course, he still joined the rest of the Flock as they sped after me. We may not have been actually related, but boy, did we all have a competitive streak. I laughed, and shot up into the sky. Wow. I could never get over how much I loved that feeling.  
The landscape spread out below me as I climbed. I stopped and hovered for a minute, enjoying the birds-eye view (pun intended).  
A thin, silvery river snaked across the valley floor. The town was about half a mile away from it, a small, compact centre surrounded by suburban sprawl. The valley was protected by mountains on either side.  
The Flock were waiting impatiently below me. I flew down to them.  
"Finally!" Gazzy said. Fang, next to me, reached out and touched my hand. I frowned at him, confused and a little worried. I still wasn't sure how I felt about-  
"Caught you!" he smirked. I turned to the rest of the Flock, trying to look as angry as I could. I could've sworn they all gulped. I grinned mischievously. Suddenly Nudge worked it out and sped away, shrieking. The rest got it seconds later and followed her lead. I flew after them, laughing my maddest laugh and yelling "I'm gonna catch you!"  
I led the Flock to the back of a little B&B I'd spotted, and we landed and were given one of those cool double rooms that have a connecting door. Angel and Nudge raced ahead of us, and the first thing we heard were squeals of "Bunkbeds!" I smiled and followed them in.  
There were three beds in both rooms; a bunkbed and a single bed.  
Nudge bagsed the top bunk in one room, and Angel the other. Gazzy took the bottom bunk in Angel's room, and Iggy took the single bed, leaving Fang and me with Nudge. The girls found a TV in a cupboard in Angel's room, so we all piled in there to watch…  
"American Idol? Nooooooooooooooooo!" Gazzy cried, but Angel and Nudge were already dancing around the room, singing along with the contestant. At the end of the song they were both sweating, and Angel somehow managed to get her head stuck in the neck of her jumper while trying to take it off.  
"Come here, and I'll get it off." I laughed. She stumbled over to me, arms waving around comically. As I pulled it over her head, I froze. Her top had ridden up at the back, and-I put up a mindblock so she couldn't hear my thoughts. _It can't be. It's not. Nonononono… _printed on her back were the numbers _**15/3/12**_. It…it was the Date, the one all Erasers had. The _Expiration Date. _No, I thought, not _Angel_.

_**Denial will not help anything, Maximum.**_

I growled under my breath. Stupid voice always stating the stupid bloody obvious like this was _perfectly __normal_, when Angel-  
"Max? What is it? Max?"  
"What?" I blinked, brought back to earth by Fang's voice "Oh, um, just the Voice again. Angel, I'll just get you a plaster. You've got a graze on your back, sweetie, didn't you notice?"  
Angel frowned "Um-", but I hurried her into the next room before she could finish. Grabbing a plaster, I carefully smoothed it over the Date, and we went back to the others. Fang shot me a look as I sat down, but I ignored him. I couldn't face telling him, not yet, anyway.

_**You will have to tell him sometime. This is important, Maximum.**_

_You think I don't know that? We're not meant to have _Expiration Dates_! I don't suppose you'd tell me what's going on, Voice?  
_Silence. I knew it. The Voice would remain silent until I didn't need it, and then butt into our lives with some devastating piece of information or other.  
"Max," Fang said quietly, moving closer so the others couldn't hear us "What did the Voice say?"  
"What? Oh, nothing special, just stuff about greater responsibilities and some other crap I'm not going to take any notice of, y'know, the usual." I lied. Fang didn't look like he believed me, but I was _not_ in the mood for answering questions. I needed time to think. I turned away and joined in with the next song, singing out of tune.

**A/N: There ya go! Not the longest chapter ever written, but I wanted to set the scene in this chapter, drop the first bombshell, that sort of thing.**

**R&R!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello, people-of-the-world-who-may-or-may-not-be-reading-this! How's it going? (Y'know, it'll be just my luck if 7 billion-or-so people review this with "fine, thanks, how are you?" Not that all the 7 billion-or-so people on Earth are fine, but – sorry, I ramble. Or waffle, or prattle, or-there I go again.)** **Oh, just 'cause I couldn't fit it in the summary: rated T for some swearing, maybe, well, I don't know, but there could be, although- ARGGH!  
_If I _owned _Max Ride, would I be here? I don't think so!_**

**__**In bed that night, I couldn't sleep a wink. Well, that was an obvious statement. How could I sleep when…when…

Oh, God. How was I supposed to tell Fang when I couldn't even _think _it? I sighed and turned over. It was going to be a long, long night.  
...

_**It's time to wake up now, Maximum.**_

I sat up, groaning and swearing under my breath. So as well as being my absolutely-completely-not-needed mentor/guide/personal irritator, the Voice was now my _alarm clock?_ Fantastic. _Just _what I needed. Note the colossal amount of – yes, you guessed it – sarcasm heaped on that last sentence.

_**Something important is happening. Do **_**not **_**take this lightly.**_

Wow. The Voice actually showed some expression. This was new. I wondered if-

_**MAXIMUM! Focus!**_

Well, this was _very _new. The Voice has a temper? I decided to listen this time. Being shouted at by something inside your head isn't the nicest experience.

_**There isn't much time, and you need to know a few things before it's too late. The first, and most important thing is-  
**_"Max? You're awake? I don't think you've _ever _been awake this-"  
_"Shut up!" _I hissed at Fang, waving frantically at him to go away.  
I closed my eyes. _Okay, Voice, carry on. Sorry about that.  
_Silence. Complete, utter, the-lights-are-off-and-everyone's-gone-out, silence.  
I glared at Fang. "Well done, Fang, nice job, _very_ helpful."  
"What?"

"Shhhh!" I could just hear something from the Voice. There was a fuzzy, crackling noise, like static on the radio…

…_**Don't…trust…..…..Fate…**_

And then it was gone, and I was left with silence and a very confused Fang.  
"What the _hell _was that about?" Fang asked, looking almost as lost as I felt. Almost.  
I closed my eyes, running my hand through my hair. Why couldn't our life be _simple?  
_"To be honest, I haven't a clue. Something to do with…Oh, never 's happening breakfast-wise?" I marched out of the room, leaving a baffled Fang to follow.  
"Look, Max, whatever's going on, you'll have to tell me sometime." We went down the stairs, and into the breakfast room of the B&B, -where_ Iggy _was cooking? I was _not_ going to ask how that had happened.  
I put my finger to my lips and whispered "Not in front of the Flock. I'll tell you later, I promise. Oh, by the way," I drew a line across my forehead with a finger, our sign for "put up a mind-block". He nodded. Suddenly, there was a round of applause from the room. I turned, to find Iggy, Nudge and Angel grinning at me.  
"How _did_ you do it, Fang?" Nudge laughed. I checked my watch. "It's not _that _early, is it?" I asked, as Gazzy walked sleepily into the room. He did a double take when he saw me, then glared.  
"Wha- I woke up after _Max?_ This-this is just…whoa."  
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha." I sat down at the table, rubbing my eyes. "What's for breakfast, Ig?"  
"Pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausages…"  
"I can't just sit here and listen to you, it's making me hungry! I need something to do." I went over to him, and grabbed the bowl he'd been mixing the pancake batter in. He sighed, and pulled out a packet of bacon. I started mixing, and within seconds he grabbed the bowl back.  
"You're not doing it right. This is how you do it."  
"I'm rolling my eyes, Ig. How could you tell I wasn't doing it right?"  
"Iggy has superpowers. He can sense a bad cook a mile off!" "Gazzy, say that again and I'll cook _you. Badly" _Iggy laughed, and handed the bowl back. As he did, the inside of his forearm brushed against the hot frying pan.  
"Arrrgghh!" He hissed in pain and ran to the sink. I turned the cold tap on for him, and ran to the tiny freezer for ice. Of course, ice being an important feature of burn treatment, _we didn't have any._ Grabbing a knife from a drawer, I scraped ice off the sides of the freezer into my hand. It wasn't much; more like ice shavings than the cubes I'd been hoping for-who the _hell _had been using all the ice cubes? Were they _eating _them or something? -but hopefully it would work to some extent.  
I rubbed the scraps of ice onto his now red arm and- and- I sucked in a deep breath, just focusing on not sinking to the floor. There, on his arm, just to the left of the burn, were the numbers _**5/3/12**_.

**A/N: Next chapter coming soon! Thanks to NinjaInAnImaginaryLondon-cool name, by the way- for my first review! Every review is fantastic, but the first is special, because without it there wouldn't be any!**


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